Probable line-up:

Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: John Regan or Ivan Neville (?)
Electric guitars: Keith Richards
Lead vocal: Mick Jagger
Background vocals: Mick Jagger, Kirsty MacColl, Janice Pendarvis & Dollette McDonald
Synthesizer: Chuck Leavell
Percussion: ---
 

I want to be on top, forever on the up
And damn the competition
I never play it fair, I never turn a hair
Just like the politicians

I wrap my conscience up, I want to win that cup
And get my money baby
But back in the dressing room
The other side is weeping

And we're winning, winning ugly (yeah)

And we're heading for the heartbreak
Heading for the blues

I will not act unkind, I will not be so blind
I will not walk so proud, come down from off my cloud

How can I live my life this way?
Beauty is staring me in the face
Ain't that the truth?

Hold on
Come on girl

Look out for number one, my country right or wrong
Let the devil take the hindmost
I was brought up to cheat so long as the referee
Wasn't looking

I'm never wrong at all, I always fight the call
I don't admit it
But back in the dressing room
The other side is screaming

Come on, baby
Come on, girl
A little bit louder
Walk a little bit prouder

Pretty, pretty, pretty

That's all right
Come on, girl
Watch me sinning...

Winning ugly
Come on, stay (...)
Stay on it, girl
 
 

TrackTalk

That was cut pretty fast.

The original track had two guitars, Woody and me, and then I think we put another couple on there that we used in and out. Then there's that lick: everybody keeps asking me to show them how to play it. I feel like I could make a living off teaching guitar players how to play that lick (laughs). But it's dead simple, just a slightly elongated version of Tumbling Dice - to me, at least. It's the same shapes, the same fingerings, just sort of drawn out a bit... That riff reminds me of an early Motown thing, a Marvin Gaye thing like Stubborn Kind of Fellow or You're a Wonderful One or Can I Get a Witness. It's a basic Motown riff, really; we've just jazzed it up with some technology.

(The upstroke guitar playing section) comes from Ronnie and me hanging around for a while in Mexico, 'cause we started to learn all those fandangos, where you pull back on the strings from the top down.

Keith used Ronnie's blonde '57 Strat through a Boogie (amp) and came up with that great lick which flows through the song.

I mean, I'll go for almost anything in a song if I think it's good - 'cause I'll write it from the standpoint of someone else. Then I can show the subject in its bad light. There are uncomfortable subjects, but you don't have to imply that you're endorsing it. You have to be able to write around it, from the point of view of someone else. There were certain songs on Dirty Work that were done that way.

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